Presumably the Ukrainian channel "1+1" called the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces a psyop, which did not happen and was used to scare the Russians, while the army is preparing for a real counteroffensive, and the psyop is so successful that it will be studied in history.
Ironically they are repeating American neocon nonsense that has been around for months. Its an existential counteroffensive designed to defeat the Russians in their minds.
From the American Neocon journal "the Atlantic" June 8, 2023 by Anne Applebaum. The piece is entitled "The True Purpose of Ukraine’s Counteroffensive"
"This counteroffensive will also look different from the D-Day movies because Ukraine’s goals are not merely military. Yes, Ukrainian troops are probing Russian defenses up and down the 1,000-kilometer front line. Yes, the Ukrainians are conducting “shaping operations,” hitting ammunition dumps and other targets behind Russian lines. Yes, Ukraine wants to take back territory lost since February 2022, as well as territory lost in 2014. Yes, we know the Ukrainians can do it, because they’ve done it before.
......
But in addition to taking back land, they are also conducting a sort of psychological shaping operation: They have to convince the Russian elite that the war was a mistake and that Russia can’t win it, not in the short term and not in the long term, either. Toward this end, they are also seeking to convince ordinary Russians that they aren’t as safe as they thought, that the war is nearer to their own homes than they believed, and that President Vladimir Putin isn’t as wise as they imagined. And the Ukrainians have to do all of this without a full-scale invasion of Russia, without occupying Moscow, and without a spectacular Russian surrender in Red Square."
Anne Applebaum had a new article in the Atlantic today. She was in a panic about the possibility of negotiations to end the war. She was full of new bad ideas:
- The sanctions on Russia have not worked because there are too many sanctions and the sanctions are too complex to understand or enforce. Therefore we need new sanctions.
- The US government should start buying up and stockpiling raw commodities associated with military weapons production. Every commodity we buy up will deny the Russians weapons production.
- The US needs to give all the money and all the assets confiscated from Russia and Russians to Ukraine. Because this will show the Ukrainian people that we are serious about reparations for the war.
- The US and NATO should shift to a war economy. The production of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine should become national priorities everywhere no matter what the economic price.
- The US itself needs to start directly sabotaging Russian military industries.
Its the same sort of insane neocon thinking that was displayed toward the end of the original war in Iraq. Neocons like Anne Applebaum know that they are losing the battle of ideas and that the only ideas that they have are so extreme that they will not be politically acceptable to anyone. You can tell from the article that people beyond certain republicans are now souring on the war policy. That she can't convince people who are her friends and who are on her own side to stick with the war.
